Do Not Start a Fish-Keeping Hobby With Discus Fish

They are colorful and swim with grace. Discus fishof time. So you should provide very good filtration
are very popular among the fish keepers.system for the aquarium. You should check
However, if you are not able to spend a lot offrequently the ph level and the levels of ammonia
time regularly for their care and overall on theand nitrites so that they are always kept under
maintenance of the aquarium, you better go forcontrol. The water should be kept clean and all the
other species. A lot of efforts are required forparticles of left-over food as well as the fish
keeping Discus fish successfully in your aquarium.waste accumulated at the bottom should be
The fish originated from Brazil and it came to theremoved from the aquarium as quickly as
United States by 1920. Initially, it comes in twopossible.
colors - red and blue. Recently a lot of breedersDiscus fish are very fussy about the food. They
have experimented on them and producedare considered as very slow eaters. When you
successfully a huge variety of Discus with manyoffer them something new, they may not eat it
shades of color.for days. They can survive without food even for
While planning to keep Discus fish in youra month. Even though they food such as like fish
aquarium, you must remember a very importantinsects, blood-worms and mosquito larvae, you
thing to begin with. They always prefer to live inshould provide them a balanced food containing
groups. So you should keep them in a group ofgood amount of protein.
about 7 to 10.There is one more variety of food which Discus
Another important thing you should remember isfish love to eat - beef heart. However this is an
about their lifestyle. They want plenty of room toexpensive food and it need not be offered
swim around. You should keep them in sufficientlyfrequently.
big aquarium. There should be at least 10 gallonsDiscus fish will require many hiding places in the
of water per fish in the aquarium. They can growaquarium. If they get scared and if they cannot
up to 8 inches, so you should provide enoughfind suitable place to hide, they gets stressed and
room for such growth also.they may hurt themselves by hitting the walls of
The temperature of the water is next importantthe aquarium.
factor. They are comfortable with theIf you want to keep them in an aquarium with
temperature of around 85° F. If there is anyother species of fish, you have to be careful.
sudden change in the temperature in eitherThey will be happy to share the aquarium with
direction, they are unable to cope up with such aangelfish and tetras. However, you should not
change.keep them with Uaru fish because they may eat
Discus fish originated from the quiet waters ofUarus.
Amazon. Naturally, they prefer still water. Even ifIf you are a first time fish-keeper, you should not
you plan to have some streams for filtrationgo for Discus fish. You may find it difficult to
purposes, they should be slower and should bemanage them with their food habits and high
kept out of the way of their normal swimmingexpectations about the conditions of water
area.around them. Instead, you can begin with species
They expect ideal conditions of water for theirwhich are easy to keep like catfish or goldfish.
healthy living. They are very sensitive to slightestOnce you are trained to keep them successfully
changes in the environment around them and canfor some time, you can introduce Discus fish in
get sick or may even die in a very short periodthe aquarium.